In London last week I took the opportunity to view John Riddy's series of cityscapes at the Frith Street Gallery. We see the Sicilian capital through his eyes as a stage empty of players or inhabitants.as Morgan Meaker says on 24 April in Time Out ' Absence and ruin linger here, hinting at our own mortality in the face of an enduring urban landscape'.
Certainly the cityscapes show a range of dereliction laid out in dark narrow streets. Using greyscale the images capture a certain quality of light and shadow that does also allow a degree of romanticism to creep into the composition. To my mind, some scenes worked well and took you beyond the surface of the image asking questions as to how you felt looking at the dark urban decay and what the future might hold in such an environment .. a sort of post capitalist life on and in the street. ...was this due to the emotional feel coming from the use of greyscale in this kind of landscape? It needed no characters such as Chris Killip found in the north of England in the 1970s and 1980s to convey urban neglect.
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